Teacher+as+a+Facilitator

Teacher as a Facilitator

Intentional teachers build in regular opportunities for students to approach difficult, realistic tasks. Students should be encouraged to construct knowledge through student-centered approaches. A combination of direct, student-centered, and teacher-student centered approaches to teaching will provide students with a variety of learning outcomes.The teaching is a "hands-off" approach; therefore, the teacher acts as a facilitator providing the students with the necessary tools and then observing(Borich, 2007). The responsibility of the teacher is to give the students the necessary tools and then allow them to explore for themselves. This method is recognizable through the “hands-off” characteristic of the instructor. The teacher’s main responsibility is to supply the students with the necessary tools and then let the students explore.




 * Why is it so important that teachers facilitate this constructivist classroom? **


 * The Constructivist Approach to education enables students to "construct" their own meanings.
 * According to Piaget and Vygotsky, much of this constructed meaning is based on Pre-Existing knowledge, which is essential to increased learning.

An emphasis on understanding leads to one of the primary characteristics of the new science of learning: its focus on the processes of knowing (e.g., Piaget, 1978; Vygotsky, 1978). . ..

Even young infants are active learners who bring a point of view to the learning setting. … In the most general sense, the contemporary view of learning is that people construct new knowledge and understandings based on what they already know and believe (e.g., Cobb, 1994; Piaget, 1952, 1973a,b, 1977, 1978; Vygotsky, 1962, 1978).


 * We can apply this to real life by looking at a great example given to us through a childrens book:**

//Fish Is Fish// (Lionni, 1970) describes a fish who is keenly interested in learning about what happens on land, but the fish cannot explore land because it can only breathe in water. It befriends a tadpole who grows into a frog and eventually goes out onto the land. The frog returns to the pond a few weeks later and reports on what he has seen. The frog describes all kinds of things like birds, cows, and people. The book shows pictures of the fish’s representations of each of these descriptions: each is a fish-like form that is slightly adapted to accommodate the frog’s descriptions- people are imagined to be fish who walk on their tailfins, birds are fish with wings, cows are fish with udders. This tale illustrates both the creative opportunities and dangers inherent in the fact that people construct new knowledge based on their current knowledge and why is it so important that teachers facilitate the learning process within the constructivist classroom.